FG disburses $220m for Railway projects

Chinazor Megbolu |

The Federal Government has so far disbursed the sum of $220 million for Railway Projects in Nigeria.

The Minister of Finance, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, said this on Friday after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

She explained that $220 million has so far been released as counterpart funding for railway projects in Nigeria.

According to her; “Also this week, we have been able to release to the Ministry of Transport the counterpart funding provided for in our budget that is required for the important railway projects that are currently ongoing, with financing from the China-Exim Bank. So, these are funds that have been released this week.

“In addition to the N285 billion, there is up to about 220 million dollars that has been released for railway projects”.

Speaking further, Ahmed pointed out that N285 billion has been disbursed to some agencies for capital projects as captured in the 2020 budget and another $220 million as counterpart fund for railway projects in the country.

She hinted that the Ministries of Education, Health, Transport, Works and Housing, and the Niger-Delta were the beneficiaries of the N285billion capital fund.

The minister said government prioritized agencies handling critical infrastructure projects as beneficiaries of the first tranche of releases.

“As at Tuesday this week, we have released N285 billion to a number of agencies. We prioritized the releases to the critical infrastructure agencies.

“We also made releases to education as well as health; so the ministries of transport, works, and housing, Niger-Delta; a number of ministries and agencies that have important infrastructure projects have got their funds”, Ahmed said.

Edited by ‘Biodun Soyele